Garage doors are generally known in the art as structures that form a movable barrier in an entryway to a garage. Most garage doors are formed from a vertical stack of horizontally folding sections interconnected by hinges and supported by a guide track, or from an integral flat slab door that swings upward. Typical garage doors, as well as garages in general, are often less attractive than the rest of the building to which they are attached or associated. They tend not to blend in well with the style of the home or other building.
For residential properties having a stylized façade, a typical garage door presents a plain, monolithic blank space that detracts from the overall appearance of the home. This is especially true for front load garage doors, where the garage door dominates a large portion of the front view of the house. To improve their attractiveness, conventional garage doors often include raised panel structures on the outside of the doors or ornamental windows through the doors. Nevertheless, conventional garage doors are monolithic in appearance and immediately recognizable as such. They generally present a boring, predictable appearance that does not vary much between houses and which tends to detract heavily from the aesthetic value of the home.
For those conventional garage doors that have ornamental windows, the windows are typically a single row of small windows along the top of the door that permit a trivial amount of light to enter into the garage. Such windows are inappropriate when the garage is being used for more than a storage area. Residential garages are increasingly being used for purposes other than simply storing vehicles. They are often being used as activity rooms where the ingress of natural light is desirable, such as hobby shops, game rooms, playrooms and family rooms. The ingress of natural light is desirable in these activity areas for many different reasons. For example, natural light is known to promote a more healthful environment by reducing the amount of mold and mildew in a room, and by transmitting antibacterial properties, thereby reducing allergic reactions and infections. Moreover, the use of natural light versus artificial light saves utility costs and is generally more pleasing.